dividend - All posts tagged dividend

Bank of America Corp. announced an adjustment to its regulatory capital numbers and as a result the Fed has suspended its dividend increase and share repurchase plan.

Analysts say this latest blunder will increase the rhetoric against the big banks.

“It is inevitable that it will reignite the debate are these banks too big to manage,” said Andrew Marquardt, analyst at Evercore Partners.

The bank reported it would make a downward revision to previously disclosed capital amounts and ratios due to an incorrect adjustment dating back to 2009 with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. The adjustment was related to the treatment of certain “structured notes” the bank said.

The Federal reserve immediately suspended capital distributions approved this year as part of its Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review process. The bank had previously announced it would repurchase $4 billion in common stock and increase its dividend to 5 cents a share from a penny.

“This is a good reminder that the Fed has an enormous amount of power,” said Marquardt. “They can quickly pull the plug on capital.”

S&P 500 companies are expected to return almost $1 trillion to shareholders via buybacks and dividends in 2014, according to a Goldman Sachs report. That\’s sharply up from about $800 billion paid out by Corporate America last year.

General Motors’ dividend is back, paying 30 cents a share to common stock shareholders in March.

This is the company\’s first dividend since 2008. The market has been clamoring for this ever since it became clear GM would survive its 2009 bankruptcy, which wasn\’t hard to figure out given the $49.5 billion in emergency backing it received from Uncle Sam.

Apple Inc. saw its shares jump more than 1% on what was an otherwise terrible morning for the markets on Monday, as the company appeared to dodge the fallout from the controversial Cyprus bailout – thanks to growing speculation that it may up its dividend or return more cash to shareholders in some other fashion.

Of course, there is no way of knowing whether the ultra-secretive company will stick to the same schedule. But a rough consensus compiled by Bloomberg of six analysts covering Apple predicts the company will raise its dividend by about 56% — which would bring the quarterly payout from $2.65 per share to $4.14 per share.

\”Apple could maintain flexibility to make acquisitions and not incur a tax hit for repatriation — all for very low current borrowing costs,\” analyst Ben Reitzes of BarCap writes. \”As a result, we calculate Apple could easily double the size of its current three-year capital-return plan.\”

DineEquity
, parent of the Applebee’s and IHOP restaurant chains, has been pitching its cash flow story ever since CEO Julia Stewart worked to change the business to a franchisee model.

DineEquity vs. S&P 500

Now 99% franchised, DineEquity gave its shareholders a long-awaited treat.

On Wednesday, DineEquity brought back its dividend after a four-year hiatus. The restaurant chain said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 75 cents a share starting in March.

Assuming that payment stays the same the next 12 months, investors will get an annual dividend of $3 a share this year. That’s a fat dividend yield of 4% based on DineEquity’s recent stock price. By comparison, the S&P 500 yields 2.2%.

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